Why Health Insurance Is Not Like Buying A TV

Something like televisions exist in a free
market because consumers, if they don't like any of the new TVs on the
market, can simply keep their old one. If they really don't like the
market, they can even forgo owning one altogether; it will make you
unpopular on game day, but it won't risk your life. Insurance is
different. Anyone with a sense of basic self-preservation has no choice
but to buy health insurance every single month. You cannot opt out,
there are few options to choose from, and it's difficult to know how to price your future risk of injury. So
health insurance companies have distorted incentives to innovate or provide
a more cost-effective product.

A public option would, crazy as it might sound, make health
insurance a free market.

If there exists a government-run plan, which
by all accounts would be basic and geared towards affordability,
consumers will have the ability to opt out of the private insurance
market. Private providers would finally have real incentives to provide
a better product and innovate by building an insurance plan stronger
than public insurance. Fears that a public option might decree certain
treatments "not cost-effective," which are not as outlandish
as some liberals think, should delight free-market conservatives
because it would be an opportunity for private insurers to step in.
Worried you might develop a condition requiring $60,000 medication that
no public option would ever include? Buy a blinged-out private plan
that, for an increased premium, will.

Makes sense to me. Or the private sector can also compete for the best discount insurance plan - kinda like Sprint airways for your body.

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